Eurozone periphery bonds slump ahead of Q1 GDP, ECB policy decision

The Eurozone periphery bonds slumped Wednesday ahead of the eurozone’s first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP), scheduled to be released on June 8. Further, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy decision, scheduled to be held tomorrow will add further direction to the debt market.

The German 10-year bond yields, which moves inversely to its price, rose nearly 1 basis point to 0.26 percent, the French 10-year bond yields, also climbed 1 basis point to 0.68 percent; however, Irish 10-year bonds yield fell nearly 1 basis point to 0.73 percent, Italian equivalent jumped nearly 4 basis points to 2.27 percent, Netherlands 10-year bonds yield ticked close to 1 basis point higher to 0.48 percent, Portuguese equivalents up 1 basis point to 3.08 percent and the Spanish 10-year yields traded 1-1/2 basis points higher at 1.54 percent by 09:10 GMT.

According to a report from Bloomberg, money markets are underpricing the risk that ECB President Mario Draghi will tweak policy language Thursday to signal a potential shift away from the European Central Bank’s accommodative bias, analysts say.

Ninety percent of respondents in an earlier Bloomberg survey said the ECB will acknowledge Thursday that the risks surrounding the euro area’s recovery are now balanced. In recent weeks, Draghi and some fellow policy makers have damped expectations for any significant signals, warning that weak price pressures show there is no reason to rush to withdraw monetary support.

Meanwhile, the pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.16 percent at 390.02, German DAX slipped 0.07 percent to 12,681.00, France’s CAC40 climbed 0.37 percent to 5,288.35, while the PSI20 Index rose 0.19 percent to 5,328.87 by 09:20 GMT, while at 09:00 GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index stood neutral at -10.54 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex